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Cultural art is less about definition and more about how people find meaning and make sense of their environments through creativity. In this study I associate cultural art with vernacular that describes a look, style or expression that is associated with or native to a particular time, place, event or group.

Cultural art is less about definition and more about how people find meaning and make sense of their environments through creativity. In this study I associate cultural art with vernacular that describes a look, style or expression that is associated with or native to a particular time, place, event or group.

Cultural art is less about definition and more about how people find meaning and make sense of their environments through creativity. In this study I associate cultural art with vernacular that describes a look, style or expression that is associated with or native to a particular time, place, event or group.

TVC describes a capacity to contextualize or place something in a new or different context, synthesize or see relationships between seemingly unrelated fields, and syncretize or invent something new by combining elements nobody else thought to put together.

Through an art-based method of inquiry called close-looking, I showed participants how to extrapolate cultural information from a variety of artworks using different techniques to amplify specific concepts and techniques. For example, diagramming or mapping enables artists to explore math concepts such as geometry. The mandala is one example of a vernacular or conceptual map. This adds another layer or dimension of learning to TVC.

Built on an infrastructure using polarity symbols to suggest movement, and opposition, conflict becomes a positive and necessary phenomenon—a colorful, dynamic opportunity for change or healing. Thompson links these African structures to different contemporary black art forms, which include not only visual ones but also music and dance— built on confrontation and resolution. The most important part is the point of intersection, the clash, the butting up against or crossing over.

Artists Sanford Biggers and David Ellis re-purposed the traditional Hindu/Buddhist mandala and created a breakdancing floor for audience engagement and performance. This mandala-cypher, as a diagram or vernacular map, is a source of improvisation.

For Giant Steps, jazz musician John Coltrane created a mnemonic device and circular diagram or mandala to represent Einstein’s Theory of Relativity. Physicist and musician Stephon Alexander describes how this diagram plots out geometrical theories of quantum gravity and matches the notes and chord changes in the song.

For Giant Steps, jazz musician John Coltrane created a mnemonic device and circular diagram or mandala to represent Einstein’s Theory of Relativity. Physicist and musician Stephon Alexander describes how this diagram plots out geometrical theories of quantum gravity and matches the notes and chord changes in the song.

For her project 360°, Brazilian artist Vanessa Ramos-Velasquez worked with dendrochronologists to study tree rings that are used as source materials to build cultural narratives.

For her project 360°, Brazilian artist Vanessa Ramos-Velasquez worked with dendrochronologists to study tree rings that are used as source materials to build cultural narratives.

Ai Weiwei, internationally acclaimed Chinese dissident artist, and Navajo artist Bert Benally through a remarkable collaboration, will create Pull of the Moon, a temporary, site-specific art installation in a remote part of Coyote Canyon on the Navajo Nation. Pull of the Moon is part of Navajo TIME (Temporary Installations Made for the Environment), a unique partnership between New Mexico Arts and the Navajo Nation Museum. The installation will feature earth-based drawings using sand.

Saya Woolfalk, one of several artists who worked with the CSDT community at RPI to develop culturally situated design tool (CSDT), explores scientific folklore where biology and anthropology inform fables of utopia. Woolfalk, Sanford Biggers, Ramos-Velasquez and other artists participated in workshops, interviews and presentations I conducted in different locations such as studios and museums.

Like maps cultural artworks are based on broad themes or concepts. Concept maps help researchers focus on meaning. For this study, I used a variety of maps such as quilts that communicate stories and other devices that are used to trigger digital content in mobile applications and on multi-touch surfaces with tangible markers that identify a location or element in a two or three-dimensional space.

Similar research and preliminary work was completed for the Lotus CSDT with Sanford Biggers and the Mandala CSDT that uses Xenobia Bailey’s mandala designs that consist of crocheted, colorful concentric circles, shapes and repeating patterns that draw influences from African, Native American and Eastern philosophies. Bailey’s choice of crochet reflects the funk music aesthetic, and the dignity of labor in African American handcrafted traditions. Funk originated in the mid to late 1960s when African-American musicians created a rhythmic, danceable new form of music through a mixture of soul music, jazz, and rhythm and blues.

I worked with artists and software developers to identify cultural designs in art that were amenable to computer modeling. This involved a two-way learning process and negotiation, or what Audrey Bennett calls a “design loop.” Using existing CSDTs as a foundation, I worked with RPI on the development of the AfroFuturism CSDTs. My contribution included the creation of instructional materials that link these tools and artworks to STEM concepts.

They use techniques such as repetition and rhythm to create these patterns.

This type of work is promising in the domains of mathematics and electronic textiles, which include the development of tools that sample or take a portion from one source and reusing it to create a new project.

Like with the cypher in hip-hop, the process of braiding is a unifying gesture; it brings people together. Likewise, braiding practice carries on a tradition of bonding between experts and apprentices.

According to a report from the National Academies, the narrow focus on traditional learning activities is often at odds with this type of work. For this reason, I explored alternative or informal STEAM learning contexts.

Personal learning is facilitated when students’ expectations are fulfilled by displays of works of art or other items of interest; Sociocultural learning uses socially mediated forms of culturally specific communication between the producers of media and users; Physical learning includes connections and interactions in a museum or recreation space that enhances the motivation and expectations of learners

During school-based workshops, I applied the ARCS model to ask participants questions or give them prompts to write or talk about different artwork.

Students created vision maps using a template, collaging different elements, including text. They also used the Bearden Remixes app to create digital collages and remix sounds.

5.
Framework for Analysis
contextualize or place something
in a new or different context
synthesize or see relationships between
seemingly unrelated fields
syncretize or invent something new by
combining elements nobody
else thought to put together
Redeployment
Reconception
Re-creation

7.
Crossroads
(Cosmograms) have been evident in
West African cultures and have been
elaborated upon, showing complex
intricate patterns or simplified into
abbreviated X’s, or even V’s implying
an arc of travel or motion.
Example

8.
The cypher is a figure that is based on the naturally occurring circle, or mandala
IntroEdxaumctpiolne

9.
IntroEdxaumctpiolne
The circle (mandala or cosmogram) is one of several geometric elements used in art.

16.
ResearcIhn t&ro Pdruaccttiiocne
Saya Woolfalk’s use of “simple geometric shapes and primary colors … encourage a
transnational, un-xenophobic perspective that would lead us to open-minded future. “

17.
Research & Practice
Mapping or diagramming— representing ideas in graphic form—is an important TVC
characteristic that uses techniques such as remixing.

18.
Research & Practice
Mapping or diagramming— representing ideas in graphic form—is an important TVC
characteristic that uses techniques such as remixing.

19.
Mandala CSDT developed with Libby Rodriguez and Ron Eglash/RPI. Artwork by Xenobia Bailey.
Research & Practice
Production modes such as remixing have been integrated with the ethos of techno-culture
(i.e., afrofuturism) that extends to computing. A CSDT was developed based on Bailey’s art.

20.
Theoretical Framework & Prior Research
Artwork courtesy of John Biggers (top) and Nontsikelelo Mutiti (bottom).
Core Concept
Artists across many ethnic cultures use diagramming to redeploy and remix cultural artifacts
such as quilting and hair braiding motifs to produce patterns.

21.
Core Concept
Theoretical Framework & Prior Research
Artwork courtesy of Nontsikelelo Mutiti. Ruka CSDT courtesy of Ron Eglash/RPI.
The development of CSDTs to simulate artwork is promising in the domains of mathematics
and electronic textiles

23.
Informal Science Learning CMonettehxotds
Arts-Based Inquiry
Culturally Situated Design Arts-Based Learning Digital Media/
Technology
Write/talk about the artist’s
culture(s) in this work.
Write/talk about what
you see in this art.
Write/talk about the type
technology you used.
Write/talk about how this
artist’s culture relates to
your culture.
Write/talk about what
comes to your mind
when you look at this
art.
Write/talk about how this
technology can be used to
create things you like.
Write/talk about how you
felt about learning this
artist’s culture.
Write/talk about how
well you think you can
make this art.
Write/talk about how you
felt about using the
software.
Write/talk about what you
liked and did not like about
the artist’s culture.
Write/talk about how
this art is similar to other
art you like.
Write/talk about what you
liked and did not like
about the software.
Attention
Relevance
Confidence
Satisfaction
Personal Context Physical Context Socio-Cultural Context